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POLITICO 44

President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that, despite his full-court press for tough sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program, he could not promise that China and other major powers would go along.

“I am going to push as hard as I can to make sure that we get strong sanctions that have consequences for Iran as it’s making calculations about its nuclear program, and that those are done on a timely basis,” Obama said during a news conference at the end of the 47-nation summit he convened in Washington to address the dangers of nuclear terrorism.

The president met Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and afterward White House aides portrayed China’s willingness to discuss the mechanics of a sanctions plan as major development and a sign of international unity on the issue. But, on Tuesday, the president himself was more sanguine about prospect of achieving sanctions with bite.

Obama said he was “mindful” that many countries have trade and energy ties to Iran that could be disrupted, but that “a strong number of nations” on the United Nations Security Council support sanctions.

But he was quick to add, “I’m not going to speculate beyond that in terms of where we are.”

Obama also left open the possibility that the sanctions won’t be successful. “Sanctions are not a magic wand,” he said. “What sanctions can do….is to hopefully change the calculus of a country like Iran.”

Overall, the president called the Nuclear Security Summit “enormously productive,” explaining that commitments it produced for greater safeguards and centralization of dangerous nuclear materials would make it much harder for Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations to build a nuclear device.

“Because of the steps we’ve taken…the American people will be safer and every nation will be more secure,” Obama said.

The summit’s official communiqué called for all so-called “loose nukes,” bomb-grade separated plutonium and highly enriched uranium, to be locked down within four years.

The document is non-binding, but Obama said he was confident that Ukraine, Mexico and other countries would follow through on promises to give up their bomb-grade nuclear materials.

“Do we have an international, one-world law enforcement mechanism? We don’t,” the president said.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) made clear he was not impressed.

“The summit’s purported accomplishment is a nonbinding communiqué that largely restates current policy and makes no meaningful progress in dealing with nuclear terrorism threats or the ticking clock represented by Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” he said in a statement after the summit.

And he had similarly dismissive words for Obama’s Iran sanctions campaign.

“Despite the talk at the security summit, it appears we are no closer to tough sanctions or a meaningful Security Council resolution today, seven months after the president said that the regime would face sanctions,” Kyl said. “The president’s policy to deal with Iran is failing.”

Obama said the conference was a step toward his stated goal of eventually eliminating all nuclear weapons, but he stepped gingerly when a reporter asked a question about Israel’s nuclear program and the Non-Proliferation Treaty the Jewish state has never signed.

There is only so much nations can do to change the course of any one nation. In this case, sanctions or force seem to be the options. But for what Israel may do, I'd say the West will just live with a nuclear Iran.

I don't think the West has any choice but to accept Iran as a nuclear weapons state. Same for North Korea. Neither the Americans nor other western powers has the power to stop it without resorting to means that the world will not accept.

The Iranians have shown other nations how to beat the strictures of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. When Iran does become a nuclear weapons state the NPT will be over, and the floodgates will open.

Obama's negotiation technique seems to be to unilaterally concede positions and hope that this will encourage the opposition to join in. He gave up anti-ballistic missile sites in Europe, gave up the right to a nuclear response against certain attacks, He has reduced our nuclear capacity and promised not to modernize our syatems. He has conceded that Iran should be a nuclear power.

Why would anyoone be expected to make any accomodations when it's opponent is disarming themselves and conceding evrtything in advance. It is not negotiation, it is capitulation.

We have a naive empty suited snake oil salesman in the White House. The utter incompetence of Obama is becoming a stench and EPA violation. So when do we see Odumbo swivel and focus like a laser beam on jobs and the economy?

why spoil the fruits of your labors throwing bones to the MSM? this guy is the ultimate in C O O L when it comes to being a head of state. of course the clucking from wing nuts will attempt to poopoo the entire summit; oh well, they'll never learn. i see another BFD moment about to blossom...

sure kyl, getting the russians to shut down their LAST plutonium enrichment facility, and the ukraine to ship their crap here for spin down (something that we've been trying to accomplish since the collapse of the USSR) aren't all that great as accomplishments go... gee senator, wanna remind me exactly what was it you and the GOP accomplished in the last eighteen months?????

Bubbette2 We have a naive empty suited snake oil salesman in the White House. The utter incompetence of Obama is becoming a stench and EPA violation. So when do we see Odumbo swivel and focus like a laser beam on jobs and the economy?Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/s... />

You sir or madam are a fool if you thing what we are seeing here is an empty suit you are indeed a fool. Not in my life time have I ever seen a more capable President of these here United States. It's time you dam “Tea party” haters face reality, you have no one in your party that is anywhere near as smart, intelligent or charismatic like Mr. Obama. So go smoke a pipe and drink some “dry Bush tea”, just tired of you guys talking sh..t about empty suit. May God continue to bless and keep our President strong no matter what fools like you say or think.

Alan Kuperman, a former House aide on nuclear policy now at the University of Texas at Austin. “The massive increase in spending on this actually began during the Bush administration.”

Josh, you didn't tell us if Kuperman is a Republican, Democrat, or whatever. It is difficult to weigh his opinions without knowing from which political perspective he comes. This is crucial information in order to critique what he said here.

We have a naive empty suited snake oil salesman in the White House. The utter incompetence of Obama is becoming a stench and EPA violation. So when do we see Odumbo swivel and focus like a laser beam on jobs and the economy?

Oh, stop with the insults already. If you can't say something intelligent, then don't post.

“I am going to push as hard as I can to make sure that we get strong sanctions that have consequences for Iran...

YOU LIE, Mr. President. Who wants consequences against Iran??? Consequences, strong sanctions, against the ILLEGITIMATE REGIME RULING IRAN, YES YES YES, but against Iran; against the people who want nothing more than to rid their country of these murderous ruinous regime? You play games mr. president. One minute it's Iran, the next it's islamic republic, (hasn't anyone explained to this "worldly" brilliant president the difference???) and unlike the previous president you denigrated and mocked continuously, YOU NEVER EVER DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THE ILLEGITIMATE THUGS RULING OVER THEIR LIVES, WHY IS THAT???

You pay lip service to dampen criticism while you dream of ALLIANCE and "Grand Bargains" and "critical engagements" with the mullahcracy; you empower the regime while you undermine the people, the Green Movement. Damned be the people; damned be their voices and their desires; you believe they are expendable. Always the people; you throw them under the bus first. And the wily mullahs know it all.

You have created such a mess, only people will know it later, not yet, not now.

Where is that brzezinski? It's as if he has vanished into thin air, only he hasn't. What is he up to now, that horror name from the past with his bloody hands back in the muck all over again and no reporter reports it!!???